Zevran is Home
by MadamSnark
Summary: Zevran finally returns from Kirkwall to his wife, Kallian, and daughter. It turns out his daughter missed him more than he anticipated and it is up to papa Zevran to make her happy. Fluff and stuff!


A/N: Just a thing to celebrate Father's Day. Leave a review, I love to hear your thoughts!

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Zevran never thought he would welcome the cool air and muddy ground of Ferelden but as one would expect, the birth of his daughter changed everything for him. The musical laughter of his little blond-haired toddler beckoned him further into the woods where their small cottage awaited him. Zevran had always considered himself to be lucky. Avoiding death in increasingly unlikely ways, finding a deadly sex goddess who made him yearn to live, but it was his daughter that was the luckiest gift of all. A surprise to be sure, but such a preciosa gift it was. Kallian was a sight to behold in those months of pregnancy. The epitome of womanhood and feminine beauty. But Eldora, Eldora was something else entirely. Born with ringlets of golden hair, and skin that radiated his own Antivan glow, but her brown eyes were all Kallian. Between Kallian and Eldora, Zevran was well and truly owned by the women in his life, and happily so.

The soft pitter-patter of tiny feet came to his ears and Zevran couldn't help the grin that stretched across his face. He swiftly and silently eased back into the underbrush of the forest waiting for the moment the small elf would run past his hiding spot, oblivious to all around her.

Golden ringlets streaked past him and the hysterical giggles of a toddler on the run for no other reason than to be free was music to his ears. He reached out with both hands and heaved his daughter up by the waist. Her feet were still moving in mid air until she screeched at the hands holding her captive and squirmed trying to get free.

"Mamá! Mamá!" She cried, not realizing it was Zevran.

"Shhh, chiquita. Papá has you," he soothed her.

Eldora froze in his arms, stopping mid scream then immediately began twisting around in his grip to see him.

"Eldora? Eldora what's wrong? Answer me!" Now the sound of Kallian's frantic shouts joined the cacophony of the once silent woods.

Kallian rushed towards father and daughter with daggers in hand, flour spilled across the front of her shirt, and still in her bare feet.

"Zev!" Kallian dropped her weapons and ran to her husband, finding him in one piece and smiling down at their troublesome toddler.

"And there is the other woman I have delighted in fantasizing about." Zevran shifted Eldora to his left arm to open his other for Kallian.

"Mamá! Papá home now!"

Kallian giggled, "He certainly is, little one."

Zevran sighed and put his forehead to his wife's, the smells of the forest and flowers radiated from her hair. Yes, Ferelden was where his home and his heart belonged. He grasped Kallian's chin in his hand and pointed her head towards him so he could capture her lips in his. He never got tired of their taste and the way her tongue glided across his oh so sweetly. Perfection.

Tiny hands were suddenly patting his cheek impatiently and he broke away from the kiss that was rapidly growing more heated. His daughter put on a pout that he was not ashamed to say had been learned from him.

"Ah come here chiquita. Besos para el Papá."

Eldora leaned forward and wet kisses covered his left cheek. He squeezed his little one closer and pressed soft kisses all over her face.

"Papá, no more!" She pushed against his chest but his grip was too strong so he continued his assault of affection while she squirmed.

Finally he set her down and Kallian noted that instead of taking off at a run as she was prone to do these days, she clung to her dear Papá's hand and looked up at him the entire walk back to the cottage, as if she couldn't believe he was really there.

"I've missed you, love," Kallian murmured, taking his other hand in hers.

"And I, you, mi amor," Zevran pressed a kiss to the back of her hand. He glanced down to the little elven girl on his other side, then back at Kallian. "She was okay while I was gone? You had no trouble?"

"She missed you too. The first week or so… Zev, I nearly went chasing after you myself."

He squeeze her hand gently, "That bad?"

"She wouldn't sleep. She cried at night. I had to stay in her bed until she fell asleep every night for weeks."

"And that is why you are such a good Mamá to our little one. Still, I am sorry I had to go once again. It seems this Crow business cannot be forgotten so easily. Ah, what a nuisance."

Kallian smiled warmly, her eyes lighting up how they only did for him. Those eyes that he kept coming back to. The same eyes his daughter looked through with curiosity, joy, and wonder.

"She needs her Papá, too," Kallian kissed his jaw. Even that touch sent a spark through him. It had been too long.

"Zev," Zevran's attention was brought back to the present. "I'm glad you really are here, and alright," Kallian said quietly.

The setting sun glistened off of leaves on their walk back to the front step of the small house and the light caught on the swaying hair of his daughter. Sometimes it still amazed him to say that. _His daughter_. Even as he sat down to eat with his family, and listened to Eldora's babble that fluctuated between the common tongue and Antivan, even as he fell asleep curled around wife and daughter, it didn't quite feel real to him that he was home. This was his home, his _life_. Even a few months was too long to be away from these two.

...

The morning air was fresh and cool, damp from the previous night's rain. His eye was focused on the large hare. He was upwind. The bow string was pulled taut and he let out a slow breath. It wasn't too far away. It should be an easy shot. He silently let loose the arrow and it coursed through the air, landing with a soft thump in the hare's backside. How strangely domestic of him to be hunting. Well, he supposed the hunting wasn't so domestic. One had to know such things to handle travelling across countries afterall. What was truly strange was that he was doing so, not to simply sustain himself, but to _provide_ for his family. Strange. Strange yet immeasurably wonderful.

"Papá!" He heard the small voice cry.

Zevran turned from the catch he had just retrieved with a smile already forming on his lips. The smile dropped and eyes widened in alarm when he saw that his little girl was crying. Tears streaked down her face and her nose ran. She was running towards him and he instinctively crouched and opened his arms for her to race into the embrace.

Wetness soaked through the chest of his shirt where Eldora buried her face. "No leave, Papá!" She snuffled and fisted his shirt in her hands.

Zevran was at a loss for words. Just last night he had finally felt at ease. His deliciously sexy wife had been at his side in their bed after so many months apart. His daughter had squeezed herself inbetween her parents and instantly fallen asleep. How unfortunate that he should not get to make love to his Warden that night. Seeing his little one curled up in front of him however, was such a magnificent sight to behold, that he felt he could forgive her the transgression. But what had her crying so?

Zevran pulled her back and she reluctantly let loose his shirt from her tight, hot grasp. He lightly brushed the tears from her cheeks with his thumbs, and smoothed down her golden hair away from her face. "Shhh, no llores, mi preciosa."

Eldora crammed herself back into the space created between his knees and buried her face in his shirt once more.

"Eldora? Eldora, my sweet little one. Papá has you," he crooned as she sniffled, pressing herself up against him as close as she could get.

Confused and concerned eyes met Kallian's when she found father and daughter entwined together. She knelt down beside Zevran and caressed Eldora's back, beckoning her to look at her mother. Eldora shook her head and squeezed Zevran harder. She was breaking his heart! What had her so worked up? Did she wake from a nightmare?

"I don't-" Zevran began to question what was wrong.

"She thought you left," said Kallian with a significant look.

"Well only to hunt a little and then...ah." The cold realization washed over Zevran like being caught in the freezing spell of a mage. Only this was worse.

His daughter feared him leaving. Leaving as he had when he went to Antiva, when he went to Kirkwall. He was always leaving. The fists that were wrapped in his shirt now felt like they were squeezing his heart.

"Brasca."

This would not do. No child of his should ever feel abandoned. His daughter would not be wondering when he would return, if one day he might leave and not come back. He tried to push the fear down. The fear that was always in the back of his mind telling him that he wasn't good enough, that a whoreson could never be a father. He was above that foolishness.

"Come with me, little one," Zevran scooped her up, still holding her close.

Kallian silently disappeared, leaving Zevran to handle this newest trouble. Her own muteness was only further reassurance that she was trusting the former assassin to be a father their daughter deserved. Never had she stopped believing in him.

They wandered down to the pond where a stump sat close to the water and he perched Eldora on his knee before pulling out a comb. Kallian loved it when he played with her hair, and braided it into pretty knots. Eldora's hair was long enough now for similar styles.

Zevran began methodically, yet gently combing out his daughter's ringlets and separating small locks of hair into sections. Eldora's sniffling grew quiet and he felt her body lose its tension and relax some.

"Your Papá will always be here, chiquita," he murmured over and over again while he plaited her hair.

He did not think that Eldora would normally have been able to sit still so well for him, but she was upset, and that tends to cease restless movements. Upset because of him. He shook his head, trying to clear his doubts.

"Papá?' she finally spoke faintly.

"Si, mi chiquita?"

"Stay," she ordered in a firm voice in almost perfect imitation of Kallian.

Zevran chuckled softly, "How could I say no to such an order? I would be a fool to leave."

Eldora nodded slightly, seeming satisfied that she had somehow solved the problem. Zevran was happy to see her contented at last as he tied the braids at the back of her head, in a very similar style to his own.

"Come see Papá's work," he said then lifted her onto his shoulders to walk to the pond's edge.

"Down! Down!" she cried when he bent slightly so she could see her reflection.

He easily swung her down from his shoulders and held her in front of him, making sure to have a firm grip around her waist. The child was always in motion; it wouldn't do for him to let her fall into the pond. His Warden would surely murder him on the spot.

"Your hair is beautiful now, no?"

"Pretty hair like Papá!" Eldora exclaimed joyfully. Though there were still echoes of tear tracks on her cheeks, and her nose was slightly red, there was nothing but joy in her eyes now. It was a joy that Zevran would strive to cause for the rest of his days.

"Te quiero, Eldora," he murmured and pressed a kiss to her dainty tapered ear. Those words had never come more easily to him.


End file.
